Michael Tello was born in Hollywood, CA in 1978. The son of Latin parents with an eclectic taste in music, he was exposed to a wide variety of genres, ranging from the tribal rhythms of South America to the cutting edge, electronic sounds of the early 1980's. At age 12, Michael's Father, Galo, purchased a DJ setup with turntables, mixer and microphone and asked him to hook it up. After the difficult but intriguing task, Michael had found a new interest and love for the art of DJing. He began experimenting with his parents’ Disco, Salsa and Funk 12” records and 45’s and has been rocking the decks ever since.
At one of his Father’s legendary house parties in the early 90’s Michael’s cousin gave him a mix tape simply labeled “HOUSE.” He remembers playing it and loving the repetitive Disco / Alternative rhythms and seeing his older cousins and family dance all night. Soon after, Michael decided to check out his local record store and picked up his first 12” records. He started collecting a wide variety of House, Techno, Breaks, Hip Hop and Freestyle. His Junior High School had a small DJ program that he joined and began spinning at school dances and local house parties. In High School he was a backup DJ for a five-person rap group and eventually began to MC. That summer he attended some all age club nights and also checked out his first rave. Inspired by the vibe and energy he decided to develop his own promotional group, Circuit Productions, and produced his first underground event when he was only 16. After producing a handful of successful parties the group parted ways to peruse their own separate dreams. Michael went on to DJ for several promoters, undergrounds, festivals, and club events in and around the LA area. He credits his fine tuned mixing and scratching skills to watching and observing some of his mentors, Doc Martin, Mark Farina, Little Louie Vega and DJ Dan.
In 1997 before his 18th birthday Michael took a trip with his friends to San Francisco so he could experience what all the hype was about. At a legendary Sunset party in the park, he danced to the most amazing House music he had ever heard, and at that moment decided he had found his new home. Shortly after moving to San Francisco he attended the Academy of Art College and studied graphic design. Once in San Francisco, he quickly engaged himself by assisting as sound engineer at KUSF’s college radio for the “Future Breaks FM” show and also sound engineered for San Francisco’s leading Drum & Bass weekly, Eklectik. This brought new opportunities for bookings and helped him make connections in the House music community. In 1999 he partnered up with Ramiro Gutierrez and founded “Uniting Souls,” a production company that has organized over 700 shows in the US, expanding from San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Miami and Los Angeles, and eventually became one of Seattle’s leading House Record labels. Since his arrival in San Francisco Michael gave back to the community by working as an Outreach Health Worker for youth AIDS and pregnancy prevention and also founded a DJ/Music Production program for youth aged 12-18 at the YMCA of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district for under-privileged youth. In 2000 he attended Expression’s Center for New Media and earned his degree in Audio Engineering. After graduating he interned for Om Records, one of San Francisco’s leading independent labels, where he quickly learned the ropes and progressed under the wing of Ryan Raddon (aka Kaskade) and took the torch as Om’s A&R and Production Manager for two years. His first remix for King Kooba garnered many plays and received great reviews. He followed that with “Barrio Beats,” a Latin Downtempo track that was licensed to Sex in The City, a Playboy Mansion PS2 video game and numerous worldwide compilations. In 2001 Michael started his own bootleg record label, X-Men Project, with production partner Gilad Gershoni. The label had a few releases but gained worldwide recognition by DJs and distributors. Even today, XMP releases remain timeless and collectors items. He continues to release and DJ for Om Records after leaving the company in 2002 to focus on his music production, label and event productions.
Michael's experience is built on his time collaborating and working with successful companies such as Uniting Souls, Om Records, Flavorgroup, Stompy.com, Gravity Point, Gemini Records and Deepfunk Records. In 2007 he started MVP Entertainment a new company with his fiancé, Vanessa Spears. MVP ran one of San Francisco’s leading Wednesday night weekly parties at the Icon Ultra Lounge that featured two rooms of House, Techno, Hip Hop, Old School, Freestyle, Funk and Soul music. After a two-year run they decided to conclude on a good note and focused on larger events. Michael spent much of 2008 and 2009 managing fundraisers for his Burning Man camp, Gravity Point, a collective of 50 people who organized a giant stage at Burning Man for four years. Each fundraiser would draw around 800 people and raised nearly $15,000 for the camp and this stage is remembered in the SF underground scene.
Michael’s primary music selection ranges from House, Techno, Tech House and Electro. The music he produces can be described as an intelligent blend of House and Latin Jazz fused with deep, soulful, sexy and funky rhythms. Performing mostly as a solo DJ, Michael also tag teams as "Shook Night" with Om Record's Rob Grega (aka Still Rob G) and "Dawn-a-Tello" with SF's favorite female DJ, Dawn of Sound. From time to time you will also see Michael DJing along side live brass instruments, percussions, guitarists and vocalists. To date, Michael has produced well over 30 songs for various record labels such as Om Records, Bombay, XMP, Cadang, Bootshine, Gemini Records and Deepfunk Records. Michael currently lives in Los Angeles with his fiancé where he’s launched his own digital label and podcast, Mai Music. Now with over 20 years experience as a DJ, over 10 years producing and over 15 years experience managing, throwing and hosting events, the sky’s the limit… |
